This invention relates to a ceiling module and a ceiling system including such modules. It relates particularly to such a module and system in which the modules are lighter and more easily transported than those previously known, while providing a planar ceiling.
Ceiling modules are now well known. Such modules are of substantial size, on the order of ten to thirty-six square feet in area (one to two meters on a side), and are easily arranged as repeating ceiling elements to form a modular ceiling. Examples of such modules and ceilings are shown and described, for example, in Quin et al, U.S. Pat. No. 3,372,270, in Halfaker, U.S. Pat. No. 3,743,826, and in Halfaker et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,831,019.
In all of these modules, a ceiling surface is defined by four sheet-metal panels arranged to form a rectangular ceiling area having a central rectangular opening. The ceiling-defining panels have upwardly turned edges at the periphery of the module and at the central opening. A lighting fixture including a light source may be mounted in the central opening. Also, batts of sound-deadening material may be placed over the ceiling-defining panels, and metal sound attenuating panels may be placed over the batts. In all of these modules, the support for the ceiling-defining panels is a generally vertical frame means extending along and above lines of joinder between the ceiling-defining panels.
Such ceiling modules have made possible truly integrated ceiling systems in which lighting, air handling, sound attenuation and flexible partitioning are combined in a modular ceiling structure.
In recent years, energy considerations have dictated that a substantial proportion of the modules in a modular ceiling be unlighted. It would therefore be desirable to produce ceiling modules which did not require the bulky frame and lighting fixture of previously known systems. It would also be desirable to produce ceiling modules which were truly monolithic in appearance, with a single ceiling-defining panel for each module, rather than the four panels required by presently known constructions.